Reading this book was like spending a weekend in intimate conversation with a good friend. While savouring the pages, I wanted to shout, “hear hear” as Josephine Chia expressed sentiments concerning kampong life, family relationships, technology, politics and inevitable change. As an expat in Singapore, I am truly appreciative of the opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of this tiny country’s roots. Many readers will see that their memories strongly align with those of the author—a poignant reminder that borders and oceans have little significance when considering mankind’s commonalities. Thank you, Josephine Chia, for sharing your passion, and for enriching your readers’ levels of historical awareness.
~ Margaret Johnson (Teacher and librarian from Australian International School)
An evocative presentation of bitter-sweet memories. The loss of strong community relations prevalent in a multicultural kampong, in exchange for desirable housing with necessary facilities, is sad. The scarcity of land in an island state, a burgeoning population, and the need for rapid economic and societal development regrettably necessitated the loss of some of Nature’s gifts, such as lakes with fish—the price of progress!
Josephine Chia’s fortitude and drive in rising from her humble beginnings to provide us with a clear record of the colourful cultural history of early Singapore is most impressive.
~ Raja Arasa Ratnam (Former resident of Singapore, and author of four books on immigrant integration)
GOODBYE MY KAMPONG! POTONG PASIR, 1966 TO 1975
© Josephine Chia, 2017
ISBN 978-981-11-5038-8 (Print)
ISBN 978-981-14-3256-9 (E-Book)
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The work herein refers to and discusses historical matters in connection with a Singapore location and does not, and should not be construed in any way as referring to or creating any association with the current owners, tenants, occupants, customers, visitors or their related affiliates and any such express statement or imputation is disclaimed. This work documents a past which is no longer linked to the present, except as a matter of historical record.
This is a book of memory, and memory has its own story to tell. The book reflects the author’s memories of experiences as much as recollection permits and/or can be verified by research at press time. Some names and characteristics have been changed, some events have been compressed, some dialogue have been recreated and some names have been changed to respect the privacy of individuals.
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LAYOUT AND DESIGN by Pagesetters Services Pte Ltd
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First published under this imprint in 2017
TYPEFACE: Cormorant, Bell MT
MATERIAL: 80gsm GHS Ivory Woodfree
National Library Board, Singapore Cataloguing in Publication Data
NAME(S): Chia, Josephine.
TITLE: Goodbye, my kampong! : Potong Pasir, 1966 to 1975 / Josephine Chia.
DESCRIPTION: Singapore : Ethos Books by Pagesetters Services Pte Ltd, 2017.
IDENTIFIER(S): OCN 1007791514 | ISBN 978-981-11-5038-8 (pbk) | ISBN 978-981-14-3256-9 (ebk)
SUBJECT(S): LCSH: Communities--Singapore--Social life and customs. | Urban renewal--Singapore--History. | Economic development--Singapore--History. | Country life--Singapore--History. | Potong Pasir (Singapore)--Social conditions--History.
CLASSIFICATION: DDC 307.762095957--dc23
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“We are going to have a multi-racial nation in Singapore. We will set the example. This is not a Malay nation; this is not a Chinese nation; this is not an Indian nation. Everybody will have his place: equal; language, culture, religion.”
Lee Kuan Yew
Founding Prime Minister of Singapore
Excerpt from a transcript of a press conference at
Broadcasting House, Singapore, 1965
Contents
Preface
Happy First Birthday Singapore! (1966)
A Murmur Rebellion (1967)
Sunshine Opportunities (1968)
Water, Water Everywhere (1969)
Year the Metal Dog (1970)
When Will the Good Apples Fall? (1972)
Singapore’s First Chingay (1973)
And Then There Was Colour (1974)
Those Were the Days (1975)
Epilogue
Acknowledgements
Preface
MANY of my readers wanted to know what happened after 1965, the last chapter in my book, Kampong Spirit—Gotong Royong: Life in Potong Pasir, 1955 to 1965, which won the Singapore Literature Prize for Non-Fiction in 2014. They wanted to know: When did kampong life end? How did it end? What happened to the villagers who had lived there? So, I am writing this book to answer those questions and also to lay my kampong life to rest.
For many, the exodus and transition from kampongs to Housing Development Board (HDB) flats was difficult, painful and emotional. Writing this book does not mean that I, or the kampong folks, did not approve of the move or of modernisation. On the contrary, we welcomed progress, rejoiced in the new creature comforts offered to us—like flush toilets, electricity and running water. And yet, inevitably, we were also human and thus grieved for the loss of a way of life which would be impossible to replicate.
At that stage, we couldn’t imagine Singapore becoming the Singapore of today, catapulted into international renown as a First World country, with housing and job opportunities for everyone, easy availability of food, a safe and clean country, free from political strife. This was the dream of our great visionary, first Prime Minister Mr Lee Kuan Yew, who made that dream come true. Because the majority of people in my generation had suffered extreme poverty and deprivation, and the fact that Mr Lee and his team
